Plymouth County Biographies



Part of the Massachusetts Biographies Project



Eleazer Carver

Eleazer Carver was a native of Bridgewater and learned the trade of Millwright. When a young man he was employed in Natchez in repairing sugar mills, cotton gins and presses and became greatly interested in cotton gins, as he believed he could make important improvements. He studied the machines painstakingly and, in 1838, obtained a patent on a device which prevented the machines from clogging. He had made less important imrovements in the machnes invented by Eli Whitney, a native of Westborough, Massachusetts, since 1807. The making of cotton gins in East Bridgewater by Mr. Carver dated from 1843. Two years later he secured another patent for another important improvement, a cylinder brush with fans, by means of which the cotton ginned became greatly enhanced in value. In 1853 the government of India awarded a prize of two thousand, five hundred rupees and a gold medal to Mr. Carver's company for ther excellent machine for cleansing cotton from the seed.

Source: "History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable Counties Massachusetts; Volume I" by Elroy S. Thompson. Pub. 1928. Page 7

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